NHS remains under pressure despite drop in flu levels

• There were 1,987 patients in hospital with flu on average each day last week, down from 2,519 the week before.
• There were 1,106 adult beds closed on average each day due to patients in hospital with norovirus last week, up from 984 the previous week.
• But overall virus levels were down, with 3,781 beds closed or occupied due to Covid-19, flu, norovirus and paediatric RSV last week. The week before this figure was 4,216.
• On average ambulances made 13,912 handovers a day last week, up from 13,788 the previous week and higher than the 13,562 reported during the same week last year.
• Some 30.2% of ambulance handover delays took longer than 30 minutes, an improvement on the 32.5% the previous week and 31.2% last year.
• Some 10.2% of handover delays were longer than an hour, quicker than the 11.9% last week and 11.3% last year.   
• There were 14,005 beds filled on average each day with patients no longer meeting the criteria to reside in hospital last week, up from 13,683 the week before.
• On average 95.8% of adult general and acute beds were occupied last week.

Responding to the latest NHS urgent and emergency care situation reports, Rory Deighton, acute and community care director speaking on behalf of NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation said:

“It is clear that the NHS remains incredibly busy, with high levels of seasonal viruses, hundreds of thousands of calls to NHS 111, hospital bed occupancy remaining at unsafe levels, and rising numbers of delayed discharges. 

“NHS leaders and their teams are working incredibly hard to keep patients safe and provide care as quickly as possible. The improvements in ambulance handover times suggests that the extensive planning ahead of winter and extraordinary effort of staff is resulting in more timely care. 

“But despite the drop in flu, winter is not over yet, with norovirus levels continuing to mount and more than 14,000 delayed discharge patients causing bottlenecks in systems. When patients can’t leave hospital due to a lack of social or community care the knock-on impact is significant, with ambulances taking longer to get back on the road, and A&E staff struggling to find beds for patients coming in, forcing them to treat patients in corridors and other inappropriate settings.

“Health leaders are under no illusions that there is still a long way to go to tackle these issues and hit the NHS’ key performance targets. This will require sustained focus, realistic planning and continued support, especially in the context of workforce pressures, constrained finances and the potential for yet more industrial action.”